Bush short-changes Blair on African appeal

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The US President, George Bush, was set to announce yesterday an
extra $US674 million ($880 million) in humanitarian relief to
Africa, a move timed as a gesture to the British Prime Minister,
Tony Blair, his close ally, who has unsuccessfully pushed Mr Bush
to embrace a far more expansive African aid package.

A White House official said on Monday that Mr Bush would unveil
the new spending at a joint news conference with Mr Blair, on his
first visit to Washington since the British election slashed his
parliamentary margin, a consequence in part of his support for the
US-led war in Iraq.

"We cannot ignore these urgent humanitarian needs," said the
official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the
announcement had not been formally made.

But if Mr Blair hoped for a greater payback, Mr Bush has
indicated that he will not go along. The British leader has been
trying to round up international support for a broad, long-term
plan to double foreign aid to Africa and forgive 100 per cent of
African international debt - what some in London call a modern
Marshall Plan for the continent.

He hopes to persuade the world's leading industrial powers to
agree to the "International Finance Facility" in time for the Group
of Eight summit he will host in Scotland next month.

Mr Bush, however, has been cool to the notion. Administration
officials argue that the US has tripled aid to Africa in the past
four years and that pumping more billions in will not necessarily
ensure that the funds are used for intended purposes.

Last week Mr Bush rejected the financing plan envisioned by Mr
Blair and Gordon Brown, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, to
issue bonds on world capital markets to come up with the $US25
billion extra needed each year in the near term and the $US50
billion annually by 2015.

The money that he would announce with Mr Blair would be targeted
at famine relief and be enough to feed 14 million people, the White
House official said.

The $US674 million would come from a US Agriculture Department
food reserve program and from money provided by a recent
supplemental appropriations bill to fund ongoing military
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the official said.

It came on top of $US1.4 billion already pledged by the US in
this fiscal year through the United Nations and non-governmental
organisations, the official said.

Seth Amgott, spokesman for Debt AIDS Trade Africa, a debt-relief
advocacy group founded by the rock star Bono, said every additional
dollar for Africa was needed. "This announcement falls well short
of a comprehensive debt cancellation, increased international
assistance and trade reform package to get Africa out of the cycle
of famine and disease," he said

Mr Blair, who also plans to meet the French President, Jacques
Chirac, Germany's Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, and Russia's
President, Vladimir Putin, before the G-8 summit, has proposed that
the world's richest powers increase their foreign aid to 0.7 per
cent of gross national income.

The current average is barely a third of that, and the US
provides proportionately even less.

Mr Bush has tried to target aid through grants that direct money
only to countries that meet guidelines for promoting democracy,
limiting corruption and reforming institutions.